Page 1 GAO-25-108093
Comptroller General
of the United States
April 11, 2025
The Honorable Chris Wright
Secretary of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585
Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Energy
Dear Secretary Wright:
Congratulations on your recent appointment. The purpose of this letter is to call your personal
attention to six areas affecting DOE’s mission based on prior GAO work and the 30 open priority
recommendations to the department, which are enclosed.
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Additionally, there are 227 other
open recommendations that we will continue to work with your staff to address.
We are highlighting the following areas that warrant timely and focused attention. Specifically:
Improving contract, project, and program management. DOE’s acquisition and program
management for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of
Environmental Management (EM) is one of the areas on our High-Risk List
. Historically, DOE
has struggled to manage programs and projects, including mitigating the risks of uncontrolled
changes to scope, cost, and schedule and meeting program and project goals. We identified
several priority recommendations to improve DOE’s management of its contracts, major
projects, and programs. For example, we recommended that EM hold contractors accountable
for maintaining a compliant Earned Value Management System to better oversee contractor
performance on capital projects and develop effective program-wide performance metrics on
reducing risks and costs of hazardous and radioactive waste cleanup. We also recommended
that DOE document oversight processes for large nuclear energy demonstration projects to
strengthen oversight and improve project performance. Further, we recommended that DOE
consistently compare the inventories of software licenses that are currently in use with
information on purchased licenses.
Addressing nuclear modernization challenges. NNSA is undergoing an ambitious, decades-
long, and costly effort to modernize the nation’s nuclear security enterprise and the weapons in
the U.S. stockpile. We identified several priority recommendations in this area to improve
NNSA’s ability to manage its enterprise and production modernization efforts. To provide NNSA
with a more structured and defensible approach to managing the billions of dollars of work in its
Weapons Activities portfolio, we recommended NNSA establish an enterprise-wide portfolio
management framework for its weapons stockpile and infrastructure maintenance and
1
GAO considers a recommendation to be a priority if when implemented, it may significantly improve government
operations, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making
progress toward addressing a high-risk or duplication issue.
